DD#1's very old (all of 5 years ) MacBook has a problem where she can't "click" on anything. The mouse moves, but the clicker seems to be broken. Since her computer is considered "antiquated" (a term used by the Mac store when we tried to get DD#2's computer fixed) it's highly doubtful that they will fix this problem at a reasonable rate, if at all.

Sadly, I simply cannot afford (nor can she) the luxury of a new MacBook.

So, I'm in the market for a Windows laptop, which I know nothing about.

Google Drive is available for free online if you have a Google account (like for gmail) - it's essentially the same components as Microsoft Word, except free and you have to be online to use them :-) You can also designate documents to be shared with specific people, so for example you could make a spreadsheet that you and a friend could edit but a second friend could access just to look at. I find it to be perfectly adequate for most uses, although I do keep OpenOffice (also free) available for more complicated stuff. I do think the "free for 2 years" thing means they intend to offer it for free but won't guarantee that the program will exist 20 years from now

Honestly I think it's awesome. It's a larger amount of cloud drive space than you can get free with a free google account. I think it's a brilliant product. Not sure if it works for her needs, but it's really cheap and I've heard only good things.

I went to Apple & they said it was going to cost $800, which just losing my job I didn't have. Last week I went to the local computer center and they are able to fix it & the cracked screen(not related to malfunction) for $300. I know the feeling of going from Mac to PC and it's a sad feeling. If your daughter is in school I am sure someone, even the campus computer lab can help her find a local computer shop for a fraction of the cost from the Apple store.

I don't have any advise on a chromebook but I do have a backup HP that I have been using and it's adequate...just not a Mac.

Please forgive me in advance, because I suspect I am about to ask the "stupidest" question of the day, but there's absolutely no doubt that the problem is in the computer itself and not in the mouse itself? (I'll bet it's not the mouse itself, or you would have just replaced the mouse, but when I read the OP I couldn't help wondering if it was a broken mouse button.)

But then we have PCs, not Macs, so maybe that's why I didn't understand! (My wife has a six year old Acer laptop and I have a four year old Acer laptop. They've worked pretty well for us so far.)

Gdrive - an online back up run by google. You can access it from any online computer. You can get in this case up to 20G free. After that you pay pretty reasonable fees to increase storage.

MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint - no you can not run those programs on a Chromebook. You can access Skydrive an microsoft product that has limited versions of these programs. If your daughter has to turn digital copies of work and they must be in MS products, you need to be cautious about a Chromebook.

A Chromebook - Does not have an optical drive- you can not load any programs that are not from google- Basically just runs the chrome browser you so everything in that browser- you can look at the Chrome store online to see the types of apps/plug ins available

I love mine and I can do all my personal business on it. I have to use a work windows computer to access some programs I need for work.

Gdrive - an online back up run by google. You can access it from any online computer. You can get in this case up to 20G free. After that you pay pretty reasonable fees to increase storage.

MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint - no you can not run those programs on a Chromebook. You can access Skydrive an microsoft product that has limited versions of these programs. If your daughter has to turn digital copies of work and they must be in MS products, you need to be cautious about a Chromebook.

A Chromebook - Does not have an optical drive- you can not load any programs that are not from google- Basically just runs the chrome browser you so everything in that browser- you can look at the Chrome store online to see the types of apps/plug ins available

I love mine and I can do all my personal business on it. I have to use a work windows computer to access some programs I need for work.

Not to threadjack, but I will - do you use this at school and do you have any opinions or recommendations? The PTA at my son's preschool (okay, me, the technology committee of one) wants to set up the school so that every lead teacher has a laptop, and I've been reading about the chromebooks and google's school programs. It seems perfect for the school, but we have no first hand experience (though I've played with the Chromebook and I believe it will be my next machine).

How much stuff do you have on the hard drive? You do need to have a decent amount of your hard drive free for your Mac (or any computer) to "think". I know when my husband's Macbook gets too full he can just kiss it off. It looks like it's going to do something, but never does! Then he frees up space on the harddrive and he's good to go.

I would definitely explore other options for getting the Macbook fixed before going to a PC laptop. (We do Mac and PC in our house, but are slowly transitioning over to all Mac)

That said, I needed a PC laptop for work and bought the Sony Vaio a couple of years ago and have been happy with it.

Not to threadjack, but I will - do you use this at school and do you have any opinions or recommendations? The PTA at my son's preschool (okay, me, the technology committee of one) wants to set up the school so that every lead teacher has a laptop, and I've been reading about the chromebooks and google's school programs. It seems perfect for the school, but we have no first hand experience (though I've played with the Chromebook and I believe it will be my next machine).

It depends. If you are starting from scratch you will be fine. If you are alreading using other programs/on line services you will need to see if they are compatible.

I can't use the Chromebook to make things for my promethean board (special software) or to enter grades in my grade book (only works with IE - believe me Tech has heard massive complaints).